


Dead Dove, Do Not Eat!

by ByTheAngell (SomeLittleInfamy)



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Insecure Simon Lewis, M/M, POV Jace Wayland, Talking, Vampire Simon Lewis, this was meant to be a crack!fic idea but i gave it feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-28
Updated: 2020-05-28
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:21:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24424948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SomeLittleInfamy/pseuds/ByTheAngell
Summary: The last thing Jace expects while digging through the fridge is for a dead dove in a bag to be the tipping point to finally getting a look at how Simon's been feeling lately.
Relationships: Simon Lewis/Jace Wayland
Comments: 16
Kudos: 162
Collections: Hunter's Moon Fic Recs





	Dead Dove, Do Not Eat!

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to [Em](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatnerdemilyj) who let me adopt this meant-to-be-total-crack idea that I accidentally gave feels to! <3

During the first couple of months they’re dating, if Jace didn’t know any better, he could’ve been convinced that his boyfriend wasn’t a vampire at all. 

Simon can go out in the daylight, after all, so there are plenty of early morning coffee dates and trips to the park on nice days. And Simon doesn’t _have_ to eat, but he does anyway because he enjoys taking Jace out on occasion and knows it’d look strange if he _didn’t_ eat anything. His fridge, due to the fact that more of the people who come by are not vampires than are vampires, is always stocked full of normal human alcohol and drinks and food, with the chilled blood kept in opaque containers in the vegetable chiller drawers so they’re extra out of sight. 

“You know you don’t have to hide that, you know,” he tells Simon on more than on occasion - actually, on more occasions than he can keep track of at this point - whenever he catches Simon stealing a sip when he thinks Jace is distracted doing something else or when Simon tries to subtly sneak out of bed in the middle of the night to drink it while Jace sleeps, except Jace is a light sleeper and wakes up every single time. 

“I know,” Simon always replies, and then proceeds to hide it anyway. 

\---

It’s been four months now and Simon seems to be relaxing his ‘out of sight, out of mind’ policy a little bit, but not by much. Jace is trying his best to help, pouring Simon a glass of blood when he gets himself a beer and bringing them both back over to the sofa only to roll his eyes as Simon looks down at the thick red liquid in a mixture of surprise and horror. 

“You do _know_ that I know you drink blood, right?” Jace asks, his tone light and teasing. “You don’t think you’re _actually_ keeping some sort of secret do you?” 

Simon glares at him, but there’s no true anger behind the action. “I know,” he mumbles, taking the glass without saying thank you. 

Jace waits until Simon brings the glass up to his lips and begins to drink from it before adding, “So I’m guessing it’s still too early to ask about biting in the bedroom, then?” and watches as Simon promptly spits all of the blood out onto the table in front of them, sputtering. 

Jace has never looked more pleased with himself. 

“Really?!” Simon exclaims, eyes wide and tone exasperated. 

“The offer stands,” Jace confirms with a wink. 

“I didn’t mean about--- that-- you’re impossible!” Simon sighs before going to the kitchen for towels to clean up with. 

\---

Six months into dating Simon and Jace is pretty sure he lives at Simon’s apartment now. He never actually asked to, and Simon never officially offered, but Jace spends more nights there than he does his room at the Institute and neither of them seems to mind. 

The fridge isn’t just full of human foods and drinks, it’s full of food and drinks that Jace _specifically_ loves. Half of his clothing, from gear to workout sweats to pajamas, fill some of the space in Simon’s drawers. Jace made an off-handed comment about liking one of the pillows on Simon’s sofa in particular and the next time he came over the assortment of various pillows around the apartment were replaced to match that one. 

Jace also has a key, which he uses now when Simon sends him a ‘sorry, running late, let yourself in’ text after there’s no response to his knocking. Jace does so without hesitation, not sure when he got so comfortable with his place here but grateful for it just the same. 

It’s fine that Simon’s running late because Jace is _starving_ after patrol, and immediately beelines for the fridge to grab the takeout bag with the leftovers from the day before… except there are two bags now, one placed very conspicuously in the far back corner of the bottom shelf that definitely wasn’t there before. That brown paper bag, Jace discovers as his curiosity gets the better of him and he shifts some things around to reach it, has a white index card with writing taped to it, which he scrunches his brows at as he reads: 

**DEAD DOVE**

**Do Not Eat!**

Jace pauses, re-reads the note, and then glances around quickly before unfurling the rolled-down opening of the bag and peeking inside. 

There is, in fact, a dead dove inside of the bag, and despite the fact that it seems freshly dead and doesn’t smell he still scrunches his nose and holds the bag away from him in surprise at the discovery, just as the front door swings open with Simon already mid-sentence. 

“Hey, sorry I was late, Raphael totally lied about just needing a _quick_ meeting and--” but Simon’s explanation cuts off abruptly when he sees Jace holding the dead dove bag. “Oh my _g--”_ The word chokes off in Simon’s throat. “I was only two minutes late _how did you get that so fast?!_ ” 

Using his vampire speed Simon was by his side, snatching the bag out of his hands with a look of total mortification. 

“Why did you even _open_ it?” Simon adds, closing it again and placing it back into the fridge. 

Jace shrugs. “I… have no idea, really. I somehow didn’t _actually_ expect it to be a dead dove. Do I get to ask _why_ you have a dead dove in a bag in the fridge?” It isn’t judgemental but Simon still shifts awkwardly and looks away. 

“Lily gave it to me. I’m trying to, uh, cut back on human blood, when I can.She has a few places that ‘donate’ recently dead animals for… reserve blood supplies, I guess? And I was already running late so I didn’t have time to do anything else with it,” Simon explains.

Simon hasn’t said much to him about it, but he remembers a passing comment a little while back about the idea. 

“That’s cool,” Jace says casually, very clearly reading that Simon didn’t want to make a big deal out of it, so he wasn’t going to make a big deal out of it. “Let me know if you need any help. I know a guy who’s ridiculously into grilling, he has a butcher shop hook-up I could send your way. You know, if you want options other than dead birds in paper bags.” 

“Yeah?” Simon asks, hopeful. 

“Yeah. You know this stuff doesn’t weird me out, right? I wouldn’t be dating you if it did. You can talk to me about it. _Any_ of it. Okay?” Alright, so Jace wasn’t _planning_ on making a big deal out of it, but this feels important enough to not just drop. He’s determined to remind Simon every time it happens until he finally believes him. 

“I know,” Simon says, which is what Simon always says, so Jace expects that to be the end of it until Simon opens his mouth, pausing only briefly before speaking again. 

“Raphael says a lot of vampires go through this…” Simon continues, slowly at first, admitting that he still feels weird craving human blood all the time even if it’s from bags and not from the source, and he wants to see if giving animal blood a go would make him feel better about things. Jace has his suspicions, of course, but it feels good to know that Simon trusts him enough to confide in him about it, no matter what he’s feeling. 

“Thanks for telling me,” Jace says when Simon’s done. 

“Thanks for listening,” Simon replies, looking more relaxed than Jace has seen him in weeks. It’s nice. So, of course, he needs to be, well, _him_ , and ruin the serious moment before it gets _too_ serious. 

“...so does cutting back on human blood mean the bedroom biting is _definitely_ a no-go, then?” Jace asks after a long silence. 

“You’re the _worst._ Why am I even dating you?” Simon sighs dramatically. 

“Because you love me?” Jace jokes instinctively, tensing a bit when he realizes what he said because he hadn’t meant to say _that word_. So much for avoiding anything serious. 

All of his worries fade when Simon turns to face him with a look that’s surprised, yes, but also full of soft adoration. 

“You know,” Simon says, smiling. “I think I just might.” 

Jace realizes that a little bit of something serious, even if it comes from finding a dead dove in the fridge, might not be so bad. 

**Author's Note:**

> (Find me on [Tumblr](http://bytheangell.tumblr.com) and also on [Twitter](http://www.twitter.com/By_The_Angell)! <3 )


End file.
